It is known to provide an electrical signal indicative of the position of the detent lever used with an automatic transmission by linking contact strips in the form of a quadrant with contact wipers coupled to the detent lever so that selected angular movement of the detent lever caused by moving the shift selector will in turn result in the opening or closing of selected circuits to thereby provide an electrical signal corresponding the selected gear state. This signal is inputted to a microprocessor control in a known manner. With regard to manual transmissions, individual sensors could be used responsive to the respective translational and rotational position of a control rod of a manual transmission to provide separate outputs corresponding to their respective positions; however, there is a need to provide cross checking capability between the two outputs. As used herein, cross checking is the function of providing the position of the control rod on both the translational and the rotational axis from the output of either axis.